A Two Worded Spirituality

Dear old and new friends,

Often spiritual disciplines seem complicated. Here’s a simple one, so down to earth no one could guess you were involved in a holy action that’s only two words long: “Be kind.” It is taken from the fourth chapter of Ephesians, verse 32: “Be kind to one another.” That sounds so easy, yet I assure you it isn’t effortless—at first. You might ask if being kind isn’t just old fashion courtesy, proper etiquette. I recall an early lesson taught to me as a teenager by my mother, “Edward, a gentleman never causes pain!”

Etiquette easily becomes only external, while genuine holy kindness flows from the heart and soul. “Be kind to all” can be a short, simple rule of life that becomes effortless by taking time to express it until it is habitual. The writer of Ephesians saw that simply being kind to one another was a cure-all for the rudeness, anger and bitterness of his day. Now two thousand years later kindness is the Alpha medicine for we who live hectic lives of impersonal, hurried encounters, and even rude behaviors.

Our Kindness results from being in the Mystical Christ, so we are kind to our kindred; we are in a family-relationship with everyone and all creation. That has been proven today by quantum physics.

Be kind to those you love…and those you know and don’t know. Kindness means a loving respect that treats others not like they are inhuman robots or clogs in a machine, but as one’s kinfolk.

Be kind to strangers, of whom the ancients wisely said were angels in disguise; be kind to the homeless, the migrant and alien.

Be kind to animals, your pets and stray cats, to birds, and dogs who bark at you like angry rude bosses.

Be kind to all of creation you come in contact with in your daily life. Treat trees or dandelions not as inert “things” but rather with a gentle reverence as God-inhabited sacraments and relatives of yours.

Be kind finally to yourself! Stop being a constant judge and jury of your actions and thoughts. Don’t become mechanical like all the machines around you; take naps, read novels and do other unproductive activities. Be deadly serious about playtime, having fun and relaxing.

Kindness is shown by thoughtful words, smiling greetings, and by wordless gestures as in this true story. John Ceil Rhodes was a South African and fabulously wealthy man since he owned the Kimberley diamond mines, and was also a rigid observer of proper dress and behavior. A young man invited to dine with him arrived late by train in Kimberley and had to go directly to Rhodes’ mansion in his rumpled, dusty travel clothes. Joining the other guess all attired in formal evening dress as they waited for the appearance of their host, he stood embarrassed, painfully out of place. Finally John Rhodes appeared in a shabby, old blue suit! The young man learned only later that previously Rhodes had been in full formal dress, but upon learning of the young man’s dilemma rushed off to change his clothes.

Homogenized Spirituality

Dear old and new friends, You don’t have to go to Washington, D.C., to see them. They are in your city, every small town and standing starkly alone in the countryside. I am referring to foreign embassies called churches or synagogues. Officially, an embassy is the residence of another country’s ambassador and is a place of refuge for that country’s citizens. These embassies can be as grand as miniature gothic cathedrals or as simple as oblong, metal buildings identified by steeples atop their roofs. Every steeple rising above the rooftops of the stores, businesses and homes of our secular world points skyward to that world or higher power the embassy represents. International law grants to embassies the “right of asylum” to those seeking protection from local authorities. Churches once also did the same by granting “sanctuary,” place of refuge inside them for anyone threatened by public injustice or private vengeance. In medieval times hanging from the outside walls of some churches were large iron rings that granted “sanctuary” to those who grabbed hold of them when unable to get physically inside the church. Churches today grant refuge from a troubled world where some come weekly and others only on festive holidays. These otherworldly yet common structures also symbolized the Wall of Separation between the secular and the sacred worlds. The Teacher of Galilee announced Great News: There is no wall between the worldly and the holy—they are simultaneously one. He continuously taught: “The Kingdom, the Age, the Presence of God is now here in your midst.” For his first followers this incredible Good News was easier to embrace than it is for us today who identify ourselves as Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics or Baptists, instead of as his followers. For two millenniums the Kingdom has been “churchified,” so for anything today to be holy it must be totally other than what is worldly. Yet the Teacher said, “Friends, the world is homogenized! God’s Presence is no longer restricted to within the Temple, it’s everywhere and in everyone! No longer are religious rituals required to transform the profane into the holy for every human act is holy.” His early followers strove to live a homogenized spirituality finding their work, meals, loving and bodily pleasures to be holy. So let the next church you see ask you, “Are you a fan, devotee, believer…or a follower of the Teacher of Galilee?” Believers worship the Teacher. Followers try to live in that homogenized world he announced. Test repeatedly who you are by asking yourself on a bustlingly noisy street corner if you feel God’s presence? Do your senses distinguish the world around you to be so saturated with the Divine Mystery that it feels the same as being in church? If you do, rejoice because you are one of his homogeneous followers.

Edward Hays

Haysian haphazard thoughts on theinvisible and visible mysteries of life.